Disquiet Voices Foretelling Hope: Rural Teachers’ Resilience Experiences of Past and Present Chronic Adversity

South African teachers leave teaching due to factors such as lack of support and adverse working conditions. This study investigated rural teachers’ resilience experiences of teaching in a resource-constrained school. A life history design was used to generate data. The research site was visited six times over 20 months. Fifteen interview–conversations were collected and transcribed. The results indicate that the teachers faced chronic poverty as life-span risks. The teachers listed the unstable education system, resource-constrained teaching environment and chronic adversity as risk factors in their environment. They were also concerned with the illiteracy of parents and demotivated students. Significantly, this study shows how rural teachers fostered hope despite chronic adversity in order to be resilient in their chosen profession.

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Teaching Mathematics during the COVID-19 Lockdown in a Context of Historical Disadvantage

Education Sciences ◽

10.3390/educsci11040177 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 177

Author(s):

Brantina Chirinda ◽

Mdutshekelwa Ndlovu ◽

Erica Spangenberg

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

South African ◽

Mathematics Teachers ◽

Education System ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Face To Face ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Education Community ◽

South African Education

The COVID-19 global pandemic widely affected education across the world and engendered unprecedented scenarios that required expeditious responses. In South Africa, the pandemic came on top of pre-existing inequalities in the education system. Using a qualitative research method of exploratory and descriptive nature, this study engaged a social justice framework to explore the teaching and learning of mathematics during the COVID-19 lockdown in a context of historical disadvantage. A sample of twenty-three Grade 12 mathematics teachers at various public secondary schools in Gauteng, South Africa was used in the study. The teachers were selected through purposive sampling. A Google-generated open-ended questionnaire and follow-up telephonic interviews were used to collect data. Data were analysed thematically in five steps. The findings revealed that the WhatsApp platform is a valuable tool that can support the teaching and learning of mathematics beyond the classroom in the contexts of historical disadvantage. The findings also provided insights into how mathematics teachers became learners themselves during emergency remote teaching (ERT) as they had to adapt to digital teaching, find solutions to unfamiliar problems and acquire knowledge from a larger mathematics education community around the globe. The article discusses these findings and teachers’ challenges of transitioning from traditional face-to-face classrooms to ERT and how they were addressed. At the time of publishing the article, most learners in South Africa had started going to school on a rotational basis. Nonetheless, the study reported in this article is of importance as ERT in the context of historical disadvantage has foregrounded issues of inequality in the South African education system that must be dealt with urgently.

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Estimating the burden of cardiovascular risk in community dwellers over 40 years old in South Africa, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Ghana

BMJ Global Health ◽

10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003499 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. e003499

Author(s):

Ryan G Wagner ◽

Nigel J Crowther ◽

Lisa K Micklesfield ◽

Palwende Romauld Boua ◽

Engelbert A Nonterah ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Risk Factor ◽

South African ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

African Countries ◽

Cvd Risk ◽

Genomic Studies ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Context Specific ◽

The Impact

IntroductionCardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are increasing in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of these risk factors on future CVD outcomes and burden is poorly understood. We examined the magnitude of modifiable risk factors, estimated future CVD risk and compared results between three commonly used 10-year CVD risk factor algorithms and their variants in four African countries.MethodsIn the Africa-Wits-INDEPTH partnership for Genomic studies (the AWI-Gen Study), 10 349 randomly sampled individuals aged 40–60 years from six sites participated in a survey, with blood pressure, blood glucose and lipid levels measured. Using these data, 10-year CVD risk estimates using Framingham, Globorisk and WHO-CVD and their office-based variants were generated. Differences in future CVD risk and results by algorithm are described using kappa and coefficients to examine agreement and correlations, respectively.ResultsThe 10-year CVD risk across all participants in all sites varied from 2.6% (95% CI: 1.6% to 4.1%) using the WHO-CVD lab algorithm to 6.5% (95% CI: 3.7% to 11.4%) using the Framingham office algorithm, with substantial differences in risk between sites. The highest risk was in South African settings (in urban Soweto: 8.9% (IQR: 5.3–15.3)). Agreement between algorithms was low to moderate (kappa from 0.03 to 0.55) and correlations ranged between 0.28 and 0.70. Depending on the algorithm used, those at high risk (defined as risk of 10-year CVD event >20%) who were under treatment for a modifiable risk factor ranged from 19.2% to 33.9%, with substantial variation by both sex and site.ConclusionThe African sites in this study are at different stages of an ongoing epidemiological transition as evidenced by both risk factor levels and estimated 10-year CVD risk. There is low correlation and disparate levels of population risk, predicted by different risk algorithms, within sites. Validating existing risk algorithms or designing context-specific 10-year CVD risk algorithms is essential for accurately defining population risk and targeting national policies and individual CVD treatment on the African continent.

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Factors that Inhibit Sustainable Adoption of Industry 4.0 in the South African Manufacturing Industry

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031013 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1013

Author(s):

Whisper Maisiri ◽

Liezl van Dyk ◽

Rojanette Coeztee

Keyword(s):

South African ◽

Education System ◽

Industry 4.0 ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Youth Unemployment ◽

Small Scale ◽

The South ◽

Qualitative Descriptive ◽

Cultural Construct ◽

Sub Saharan

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) adoption in the manufacturing industry is on the rise across the world, resulting in increased empirical research on barriers and drivers to I4.0 adoption in specific country contexts. However, no similar studies are available that focus on the South African manufacturing industry. Our small-scale interview-based qualitative descriptive study aimed at identifying factors that may inhibit sustainable adoption of I4.0 in the country’s manufacturing industry. The study probed the views and opinions of 16 managers and specialists in the industry, as well as others in supportive roles. Two themes emerged from the thematic analysis: factors that inhibit sustainable adoption of I4.0 and strategies that promote I4.0 adoption in the South African manufacturing industry. The interviews highlighted cultural construct, structural inequalities, noticeable youth unemployment, fragmented task environment, and deficiencies in the education system as key inhibitors. Key strategies identified to promote sustainable adoption of I4.0 include understanding context and applying relevant technologies, strengthening policy and regulatory space, overhauling the education system, and focusing on primary manufacturing. The study offers direction for broader investigations of the specific inhibitors to sustainable I4.0 adoption in the sub-Saharan African developing countries and the strategies for overcoming them.

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